“You bet,” I said, acting like I was scared. “I’ve had all I can take from this burg.”
She sneered in an amused kind of way. “Don’t go far,” she said. “We haven’t yet got around to spending that dough of yours.”
“When guys start throwing pineapples at me,” I told her, “I know it’s time to quit. I’m going back to New York. I’m all for the quiet peaceful life in the backwaters of Broadway.”
She shook her head. “You don’t kid me,” she said. “You ain’t leaving town — not a big, tough guy like you.”
“I am,” I insisted. “You want to see what that bomb did to my room.”
She and the night clerk exchanged glances.
“When you’re this way again, look in,” she said. “Maybe they’ll aim better next time.”
“Yeah, that’s what scares me,” I said, paying my check. “So long, babe. Mind no one trips over your chest,” and I went cautiously across the lobby to the verandah.
There were two cops standing outside the hotel and a bunch of people across the way gaped at the hole in my bedroom wall. I gave one of the cops a buck to get me a taxi. I wasn’t showing myself on the street longer than necessary.
“Where to, boss?” the driver asked as he pulled in to the kerb.
“The station,” I said for the benefit of the cops and anyone else who might be interested, and I climbed into the cab.
The two cops were grinning broadly. The one I’d given the buck to stuck his head through the cab window. “Don’t you like this town no more?” he asked, showing his yellow teeth.
I said I didn’t and called to the driver to get going.
Halfway down Main Street I told him I’d changed my mind. “Make it the Granville Gazette,” I said.
A few minutes’ fast driving convinced me that he wasn’t taking me there. We were going away from the business centre of the town.
“What the hell are you playing at?” I yelled to him. “I said the Granville Gazette.”
“I heard you the first time, bud,” he returned soothingly. “They moved into new offices this morning.”
I grunted and sat back. As I hadn’t seen Reg since yesterday morning I didn’t know what Wolf had been doing. I thought it was a good idea to move the Gazette from its present down-at-the-heel district. If Wolf was going to make anything of the rag, smarter offices were essential.
The offices were smart all right. I found the Gazette on the eighth floor of a large modern block on the far side of Cranville, away from the smelting works and the dirt and smoke.
I pushed open the pebbled glass door on which was traced in chalk the name of the paper. I thought absently that by the time the gilt letters were put on it would look all right.
They were all there: Wolf, Marian and Reg. There was also a lean bird with a thin hatchet face and an eyebrow moustache who was sitting on the corner of one of the desks. I hadn’t seen him before.
“Where the hell have you been?” Wolf growled at me as soon as I walked in.
I put my bag down. “On the job,” I said, flopping into a chair and smiling at Marian. “Anyone got any liquor?”
They all ignored this.
“Did you find her?” Reg asked anxiously.
“Did I hell!” I said, setting fire to a cigarette. “She’s skipped or is hiding out somewhere. What a hell of a place this is! I seem to spend all my time hunting for missing dames.”
Wolf glared at me. “And you haven’t turned one up yet,” he said. “Now look here, young man—”
“Skip it,” I said, matching his glare. “I’m not in the mood to take anything from you nor anyone else tonight. I want some sleep. Ten minutes ago someone threw a bomb at me and I’m a little jittery.”
They all reacted to that.
Marian said anxiously: “A bomb? You’re not hurt?”
The lean bird on the desk suddenly woke out of his trance. “What do you mean — a bomb?” he demanded. “Where?”
I gave them the story.
Reg was on his feet before I had finished. He grabbed his camera. “Come on,” he said to the lean bird. “This is news.”
They nearly fell over each other getting out of the room.
I stared after them blankly and then turned to Marian. “Who’s the guy with the hard eye?”
“Ned Latimer,” she said, looking at me anxiously. “He’s working for the Gazette. Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Yeah, I’m all right,” I said, relaxing once more in the armchair. “But how long I’m remaining that way certainly worries me.”
Wolf was lighting a cigar. He still glared at me. “What I want to know—” he began, but again I cut in on him.
“It’s time you and I had a little talk,” I said. “Stick around for a minute.” I turned to Marian. “Look, sweetheart,” I said, “it’s getting late, hadn’t you better go home?”
“I’m going now,” she said. “But what are you doing? I mean where will you sleep?”
“This chair suits me,” I returned without enthusiasm. “I’ll find some place tomorrow.”
“There’s a bed in one of the other offices,” she said, getting up. “I’ll fix it for you.”
I said that would be swell, and picking up my bag I followed her out of the main office into a short passage which led to three other rooms.
“Setting up in style,” I said as she opened a door and turned on the light.
While we were fixing the cupboard bed I asked her how she liked her new job. “Wolf doesn’t worry you, does he?”
She said they were all sweet to her and she liked it very much. “I moved out of the Eastern Hotel this morning,” she told me. “I’ve got a room in an apartment house just across the way. It’s cheaper and more convenient and away from the smell of smoke.”
I said I betted Reg was tickled pink to have her work with him and she said he was.
“He’s only a kid,” she said, putting the finishing touches to the bed, “but he’s cute. There, you’ll sleep all right now. Perhaps I could get you fixed up at my apartment house. Would you like that?”
“Leave it for tonight,” I said. “It depends how badly Starkey wants to make trouble. It might be an idea for me to duck out of sight as Audrey’s done. I don’t want any more bombs thrown at me.”
We went back to the main office. Wolf still sat smoking his cigar and brooding. He said: “Don’t keep me here all night. I’ve got other things to do than waste my time hanging around for you.”
Marian put on her hat and picked up her handbag. “Good night,” she said to me, and, smiling at Wolf, she left the office.
Wolf rolled his cigar wetly between his lips and stared after her. “Nice girl,” he grunted. “Efficient too.”
I sat down and lit a cigarette. “You stick to Miss Wilson,” I returned coldly. “She’s more in your line.”
He eyed me balefully. “What do you want to talk about?” he said. “I’ve never met such a fellow for talking. Why the hell don’t you do something?”
“Maybe you don’t know what I have done,” I said, stretching out my legs and yawning. “Let me run over it with you.”
I gave him the whole works. It didn’t sound half as bad as it really was.
“Now you see what I’m up against,” I concluded. “Everyone’s working against each other and consequently we’re getting nowhere. Even if I did get the picture of Dixon’s body, I doubt if I could pin the killing on Starkey. All I could do would be to make trouble for Macey — not that that wouldn’t be a bad thing.”
Wolf tugged at his underlip. “So Starkey is at the bottom of it,” he said. “Pin Dixon’s killing on him and he would be out of the running. Yeah, that’s what you have to do. Never mind about these missing girls. Go after Starkey. Get the picture and dig up some evidence that’ll fix him. Esslinger and I can fight the election by ourselves. I’m not scared of Esslinger.”